Charania discusses the NBA’s response to the recent gambling scandal and how the league and sportsbooks are working together to detect and prevent future betting violations.
The young NBA season has already delivered star-studded performances, surprise contenders, and — yes — a betting scandal. On Oct. 23, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former NBA player Damon Jones were arrested following an FBI investigation that uncovered their alleged involvement, along with 28 others, in an underground illegal gambling ring.
According to Interim U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Rozier and Jones provided confidential information to organized crime groups in exchange for a cut of illicit betting profits. Prosecutors claim Rozier tipped off associates ahead of a March 2023 game that he would leave early with a foot injury, leading to more than $200,000 being wagered on his “under” stats, a bet that paid off when he checked out after just nine minutes.
Since, questions have been raised on what the league is doing to prevent this from happening in the future, a topic that was tackled by Shams Charania in the latest episode of Network with Rich Kleiman.
“The NBA is definitely looking hard at figuring out what the best policies are, what they’re best internal methods are — whether it’s injury reporting, whether it’s their communication with the sportsbooks,” Charania told Kleiman. “Right now, the way it’s going, these prop bets and different bets, if something gets flagged, the NBA and sportsbooks are alerted immediately. That’s how Jontay Porter was able to be found, and that situation was able to be accounted for. That’s how Terry Rozier’s situation, first in March 2023, was even detected; it was the sportsbooks flagging it, alerting the NBA, alerting whoever else needs to know, authorities.
“The system is there for alerting. Now, it’s just, before it even gets to that, is there a way to mitigate it? Is there a way to regulate it, the proper way? The NBA is having those conversations with the sportsbooks.”
Sure, there are still plenty of unanswered questions, but as Kleiman notes, the league’s current approach appears to be aimed in the right direction.
“What has to be understood is that this is not like an epidemic; these are a few select cases. … But I do think that ultimately that the idea that this came to the league’s attention is what people should also think about. That the mechanisms are in place to find out who is doing this,” Kleiman said.
Be sure to catch the full conversation between Shams and Kleiman across Boardroom and Yahoo Sports platforms.
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